Police officer on Boynton woman: ‘Our hopes, prayers didn’t pan out’

It’s been two days since Samantha Miller of Boynton Beach was found dead in a parked SUV at a Publix shopping center, and community members on social media are offering words of support and condolence to her family.

Miller’s boyfriend said he reported her missing Nov. 18. She was found Tuesday, 11 days later. Those close to her suspect she overdosed on drugs in the SUV.

A Delray Beach police officer who was involved in searching for Miller, 27, reached out to the woman’s mother, Deirdre Miller, Thursday on Facebook.

Here’s what he wrote:

“I am a Delray Beach Police Officer and had the honor of meeting Sam’s father and younger sister the other day… They were circulating flyers and talking to everyone about Sam and their mission to find her. I have been doing this 13 years now and have never seen that…it’s easy in my line of work to think about the young people that have gone down a bad path just as a statistic or a meaningless report.

Seeing your family so determined to come down here and not leave until you found your daughter was amazing. We were inspired to look for her all over the city but sadly our hopes and prayers didn’t pan out.

We lost another beautiful young person to this garbage that infests our streets. But for whatever it is worth…. Your journey to find Sam and bring her home meant a great deal to many people. It showed that these people could be are own sons and daughters as a lack of family love was not the culprit here. No family is immune to this heartache.

Our hands are tied in combating this but we do what we can to try and limit things like this…We all wish we could of helped more and brought her home safe to you…

May she watch over you and your family as a guardian angel as you try to heel from this tragedy…

Please know that Sam did not die in vain as You proved that people somewhere love these kids and cry for them every night…Thank you for reminding us of that…